Wind Concerns Ontario is a province-wide advocacy organization whose mission is to provide information on the potential impact of industrial-scale wind power generation on the economy, human health, and the natural environment.

It is with great regret, but no surprise, I acknowledge the receipt of a telephone call on July 30, 2015 from an aide in the Premier’s office, and the July 31, 2015 letter from Minister Murray, in response to my plea to meet with you directly to discuss the issue of the wpd White Pines Wind Incorporated industrial turbine development.

Following my clear and direct letter of July 23, 2015 to you both, it strains credulity to be informed not by the Premier herself but by her aide that she refuses to meet with the Mayor of an Ontario Municipality, and by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change that he has no intention of further involvement.

Through these actions, it is clearer than ever that neither of you understand nor care about the irreparable damage the White Pines and Gilead wind factories will cause to the landscape, tourism, hospitality industry and general economy of Prince Edward County, the current and acknowledged jewel of Ontario and go-to destination of thousands of urban dwellers and visitors from other Provinces and abroad. Nor, apparently, are you concerned about the looming slaughter of birds, bats, raptors, butterflies, reptiles and endangered species by these two factories, exacerbated by those in place or to come on Wolfe Island, Amherst Island and Ernestown. I await your explanation as to why protection is permanently afforded to Point Pelee National Park and its migration path, but not to the greater migration volume which visits the sites now threatened by your latest demonstration of irresponsible and ideologically-driven destruction.

Shortly after receipt of your respective telephone call and letter, our famous Sandbanks Provincial Park was filled to capacity this past weekend to the extent that further entrance was impossible and approach roads had to be closed to traffic. Do you really believe that this popularity will continue if wind factories are inflicted on Prince Edward County? I assure you that it will not, for those tourists will be driven away by the industrialization of Ontario’s former crown jewel with the disappearance of these vistas.

I am not impressed by Minister Murray’s suggestion that remedies are available to our Municipality through the Environmental Review Tribunal process. The undemocratic Green Energy Act, and the manner in which it is administered, ensures that success by this route is virtually impossible to achieve.

It is becoming apparent that the legacy of this term of government will be the destruction of and discrimination against rural Ontario, and the waste of literally billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, both occasioned by the Green Energy Act and the complete lack of cost analysis and informed technical advice which should have preceded its introduction.

I am discouraged by your lack of concern relating to the important, indeed vital matters mentioned in my July 23rd letter, but nevertheless am calling on you one more time to impose a moratorium on all new wind factories, including that of wpd White Pines, until the Green Energy Act is revisited, democracy is restored, and municipalities are again permitted to decide for themselves whether or not to host these devastating projects which so greatly impact our economic health.

I think it’s weird that in this letter the Mayor chose not to mention the human health implications of building industrial wind energy projects near residents. I don’t see a reason to believe that the people of Prince Edward County are immune to these health risks when humans in other parts of the world are not.

You know, municipal governments and their Boards of Health are responsible for taking action regarding health hazards and risks in their communities. The Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act, and the Ontario Public Health Standards DO apply.

This fight will not be won on health effects, real or imagined, it will be won on engaging all the people in the province on how it will effect their pocket books.
The health effect argument has been well and truly exercised and hasn’t got any positive results so far. This is because those not effected don’t pay attention to the argument nor support it. the government knows this. its called divide and conquer. Until every one gets together on the same page…the financial page that effects us all, nothing will change. The PEC Mayor has made the first meanigful step forward in the direction.

With all due respect for your comment, Parker Gallant has been hitting HARD on the financial issue for the last few years, and REALLY HARD lately…it is having an effect. It is all also true, not just a strategy. That said, the message re: the environment is this: whatever your views on the environment, whatever your beliefs on climate change, utility-scale wind power development will NOT help you achieve your goals.

I quite agree, and more power to him. That’s the stuff we need to get to the public at large. i’ve heard him on various radio talk shows, and that’s great. However, there is still a massive audience that is not fully understanding the big picture, so Parker needs to keep spreading the word.

It is not “weird.” The strong point about Prince Edward County is the environmental features, being on a migratory bird flyway and a destination, in fact, for Ontario birders. Again, the point the Mayor is making is, if you want to really do something for the environment, utility-scale wind power development isn’t it.

But I don’t understand what’s the point of a Mayor writing an open letter to try and reason with the tyrannical Premier and “honourable” Minister about the circumstances while only mentioning a fraction of the real, imminent problems.

Perhaps it’s another conversation to compare the responsibilities of a Mayor as a public health fiduciary and those of a propagandist or PR strategist.

Let’s not forget that the provincial government profited politically from pushing this wind energy agenda by claiming it’s all about having clean air to breathe — an argument about ‘health’ as much as ‘the environment’! So if one wants to garner political popularity by pointing out provincial government hypocrisies, the ‘health effects’ reality is ripe, too.

There’s no doubt about it — Mr. Parker Gallant has done an extraordinary job of documenting and explaining the financial impacts of this colossal waste! The world is a better place because of him.

My comment above pertained to the Mayor and the responsibilities he may have if he is a member of the local Board of Health.

If the project in Prince Edward County is built, the most important questions, in my opinion, are, who will be affected, and how should they prepare NOW? The answer may be that they should make preparations to flee, as soon as possible. Waiting to see whether you’ll be sleep-deprived by the noise & electricity emissions could land you and your family in an emergency, which could be devastating, as it has been for so many others I know.

Here are some excerpts from the Ontario Public Health Standards describing the RESPONSIBILITIES of Board of Health fiduciaries:

“Health Hazard Prevention and Management
Goal: To prevent or reduce the burden of illness from health hazards in the physical environment.
Societal Outcomes:
– There is a reduced incidence of adverse health outcomes from exposure to chemical, radiological, biological, and other physical factors in the environment
– There is reduced public exposure to health hazards.
– There is increased capacity on the part of the public and community partners to address the risk factors that reduce health hazard exposure and diseases.
Board of Health Outcomes:
– The board of health achieves timely and effective detection and identification of exposures of human health concern and associated public health risks, trends and illnesses.
– The public and community partners are aware of health hazard incidents and risks in a timely manner. ”

REPEAT: It IS the Board of Health’s responsibility to ensure that “the public and community partners are aware of health hazard incidents and risks in a timely manner.”

Focusing on only the issues that are popular and omitting to mention those that are MOST SEVERE is what got us into this mess in the first place, as I see it.

Au contraire, without my health, there is no life worth living even if that green might fill every room in my house.

And your comment above was another bashing in addition to those I DO EXPERIENCE from the vibrations, turbulence and emissions from the 18 Vestas 1.65 MW IWTs which were all erected within a 3 km radius > 6 years ago.

I do commend you for being so open about the fact that, since you are not affected [sic], you [I’m assuming] don’t give a rat’s ass about those who ARE affected.

As for the statement that “The health effect argument has been well and truly exercised”, this is untrue and is CanWEA propaganda.

John has worked hard to obtain information pertaining to the financial aspects of this situation and how electricity works.

Maybe you have not had time to read the newly posted information on infrasound. Indirect information is useful for comparison purposes. Animals
are affected by it and that there is new technology to detect and measure infrasound.

People do not imagine infrasound anymore than animals do. Reactions to the presence of infrasound are to be expected. Like it’s time to flee right now?

Johana
I’m sorry to hear you are suffering the health effects of ultra sound. I am well aware of the issues with ultra sound and I am well aware they are real. However, in a fight you have to pick the best defence, and health effects have not won one fight in the green energy act,
If that issue doesn’t win the day, you have to pick an issue the rest of the provinces population can relate to. That is the money coming out of their pockets. This is the only issue that will engage the urbanites and allow them to come to understand. After all they are not effected by any physical aspect of the green energy decbale. It’s a well known fact people are slow to support an issue if they are not directly effected, you have to find and aspect that brings them into the fight. That issue is money.
I’m more than qualified to speak to the technical side of electrical transmission and production and at no time , since its inseption, have i been a supporter of the green energy act and what it really stands for.
Yes, I’m rural, yes I am effected by solar right now, and wind to come, yes I am effected, like everyone in the province, by the money out of my pocket and the future of jobs and the stability of the electrical transmission system in this province. No, I am not slamming your particular situation, so please don’t slam me, without knowing me and why I stand where I do.

I was kind of hoping the urbanites would wake up before it go that bad. Maybe not.

Barbara

August 22, 2015 at 11:37 am

Business would already be here if Ontario was such an attractive place to do business. This has been about an 11 year trend.

Now cap-and-trade has been added. The more heavy carbon emitters will be affected the most while low or no carbon emitters like banks and insurance business that deal in “paper” shuffling will be the least affected.

Should be flew. Oh, the English language with its same sounding words with different meanings and spellings. A difficult language to learn with some 250,000 plus words which takes 26 volumes to contain them.

It’s pretty tough to have the majority of the population understand the impacts of the turbine projects when mainstream media is under the thumb of industry, Liberal politics and unions. The lack of coverage is disheartening and I wonder how the media spokespeople, anchors, journalists can even work for them anymore. So many trustworthy people of good substance have been irreperably tainted. It’s really sad.

One would expect mainstream media people to have serious moral dilemmas, which would make it impossible for them to return day after day to their job and keep pretending that they’re telling the truth.

What kind of a character can keep this up day after day, week after week…..?

Well said, but unfortunatly this government doesn’t know the difference
between the real world and the rose coloured glass world that they live in.
When you watch Premier Wynne on tv jogging down the peaceful country road do you see any wind turbines or massive solar farms
(covering acres of good farmland? I think not! The rural people mean nothing to them and she has the nerve to talk about saving Ontario
for her grandchildren! By the time she gets done we will all be in the poor
house and our beautiful countryside and animals will all be destroyed.
They just want our tax dollars and their agenda is to drive everyone out of the countryside and into the cities.

We need to band together and have Massive rallys at Queens Park!! We all need to organize and form a huge group or else we have no power. The number of people that are against the locations of these farms and understand the issues is enormous, but we are scattered.

Follow the money train and its all linked back to greed and feeding the inside political club. Take any item the folks of Ontario own then steal it in the name of privatization. We the tax payers end up with the debt and no assests.
The land lease owners may get paid today, They will end up the loser in the long run. Old Wind mills are a big liability.

Kind of reminds me of the Roman times when they threw all the slaves
to the lions! Haldimand will look like a scrape yard twenty years from now
and where will all these so called “Green Energy “companies be found!
I cannot understand with all the information available today why landowners
continue to sign away their property.Greed begets greed,or should I say
greed begets sorrow.Sometime in the future we will know the answer.
Good luck to all fighting this horror!

It’s remarkable, in my opinion, for someone to (mis)perceive that “The health effect argument has been well and truly exercised and hasn’t got any positive results so far.”

If you believe that’s the case– please explain the ‘reason’ given for why IWT noise regulations don’t account for the amplitude modulation characteristic of the noise emissions like industrial noise polluters are typically required to do.

Show me one IWT project that has been stopped by the noise argument. Not to say the argument isn’t correct, but its not accepted by the Wynne gang as a legitimate reason to stop any of the projects to date. So continuing to fight on that basis and continuing to loose begs one to look at another tool to do the fighting with.
…and what does NIABY stand for any way?

I very much agree Barbara. This is the message I’ve been trying to get across and the reason for changing the point of attack to the financial side That engages all the population of Ontraio. That will surely bring the urbanites on side.

I certainly don’t wish “wind” on anyone, and I’m certainly not an urban dweler, however, it seems to me, if you want a wall knocked down and your head isn’t doing the job, you may want to switch to a hammer. The “hammer” in this case is “money”. That’s something everyone can understand, urban or rural. This will only be stopped if ALL Ontarioans are engaged, not just those who are subject to the physicla effects of these massive egg beaters. Criminal negligence will only be proven when every one effected gets on side.,

Oh, sure, John. It’s one thing to argue that showing people how rising electricity costs affect them works to get them on side. It’s quite another to spread misinformation asserting that “the health effects argument has been well and truly exercised.”

As for charges & convictions for criminal negligence, I understand this is a very specific charge, and so it is not necessary to get “everyone effected” on side.

For example, one could argue that Mike Crawley & company operating Vestas 1.65-MW IWTs only 350 metres from homes in Norfolk County, Ontario, demonstrates “wanton and reckless disregard for lives and safety” while another operator who operates IWTs 1500 metres from homes does not.

John Vincent

August 29, 2015 at 12:17 pm

I let the record on the use of the health argument speak for itself. Not one project has been stopped on the health argument. that is not misinformation, that is fact.
I agree with the health argument, but that hasn’t won a battle, so it has been well and truly used. You need to get the urbanites on side, they want more of this and they want more Liberals in power, how do you think Wynne and Mcguinty got in. To wake them up you need an argument they can feel..MONEY. Gallant is trying to bring that to the fore.
Better groups like this work together for a common solution rather that cat fighting over what doesn’t work.

Barbara

August 29, 2015 at 4:16 pm

It’s not being suggested that the IWT “noise” issues be dropped. But the scope of this situation needs to be wider than just one or two issues.

You can spend as much time twisting in your words as you’d like. The fact is, you posted that the “health effects” “argument” “has been well and truly exercised”, and in some of our opinions, that’s not true. Pointing that out is not “cat fighting”, in my opinion.

One of the issues in play here is how hard it is to get people to FOCUS.

But if you want to talk about “financial”, here’s a thought: the “majority” of people are probably incapable of understanding the financial repercussions of green energy policies. A billion dollars squandered here and there, and an annual deficit in this province of $10 or $20 billion renders most citizens bewildered about the value of a dollar. And let’s not forget that people have voted in support of higher electricity prices.

Naiby (what is your name really? at least I publish mine) Nothing twisted here. I stay with my case. If you don’t think the health argument has run its course, tell me one project that has been stopped through its use. No matter how legitimate your argument is,the government doesn’t recognize it, no battle has been won with it and all future battles will be lost with it no mtter how true it is. No one not directly effected will support the argument if they can’t experience what you’re going through. Its the old, “its not in my back yard, I don’t have to worry about it” syndrome.
yes, the financial side is complicated, I’m fully aware of all the implications involved with that. Parker Gallant is doing a good job to try and educate people in that area. But don’t think that just because its complicated people will support your health issues if they are not directly involved.
you say you want to get people to FOCUS. Good idea. But FOCUS on what? The same arguments that have been failing for years. You better figure out what that argument is going to be because Wynne has instructed her energy minister to have 20,000MW’s of “renewable energy” in service by 2025. that equates to 10,000 windmills at 2MW’s each or 200,000 acres of solar plants (or split the make up). You’d better have a better argument in hand to fight that than has been used to date. So broaden your horizons ad see how else you can fight it.

Don’t you think that those involved with a company like Algonquin Power and their business connections is an important issue? Where do you think the money is coming from for renewable energy projects and where it’s going?

That’s the whole point! The ways in which “noise” and electricity pollution issues caused by industrial wind energy projects have been denied, ignored & covered up proves the whole scam is a fraudulent racket (in my opinion). One’s not supposed to be able to use dirty money to generate further profits.

Although sometimes it feels like “anything goes” in this brave new world.